Normal Degeneration Linked with Manahawkin Spinal Stenosis
Normal degeneration of the spine may sound incongruous when talking about degeneration, but age meets us all. Age generates degeneration normally. Our Manahawkin chiropractic practice acknowledges and respects age for its influence on the spine and its influence in paraspinal muscle and disc degeneration. They go together. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center treats them gently and successfully, especially when our patients do their part in coming to appointments, exercising, and following suggestions about supplements that can help. It is all part of our Manahawkin chiropractic treatment plan!
NORMAL DEGENERATION: Age
Age. Not a topic we want to talk about, but age does not care. It keeps doing its thing. Age played a considerable role when comparing the fatty infiltration of muscle in normal people to that in lumbar spinal stenosis patients matched for age, BMI, weight, etc. The paraspinal muscle alterations in lumbar spinal stenosis patients and normal people were comparable. Degeneration of these muscles related to age was more obvious in lumbar spinal stenosis patients particularly in the multifidus muscles. (1) A radiographic study of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis found age-related risk factors. Researchers wrote that greater intervertebral disc height and more severe vertebral endplate failure may stimulate degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis because of the intensified mobility of the segment, progressing disc degeneration. Weakened paravertebral muscles may weaken lumbar spinal stability. (2) Truly, the spine and all its muscles are interconnected. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center looks at them all, to their response to treatment, to their part in the pain.
BACK PAIN AND ITS PALS
Low back pain has friends. It brings with it degeneration, change, fat, imbalance and more. Researchers adknowledged intervertebral disc degeneration as being the main cause of chronic low back pain. It’s a familiar and recurrent condition in spine surgery fields. Disc degeneration is associated with disc inflammation which makes sense as it is avascular tissue. As we humans age, researchers pointed out that its bone marrow changes to bone marrow fat, triggering an inflammatory response in the disc and paraspinal muscles which influence spine stability. As the muscles fill with fat, low back pain transitioned to chronic. (3) In a study of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis and sciatica/leg pain, researchers saw that lumbar degenerative diseases caused paravertebral muscle degeneration with greater levels of intramuscular fat infiltration. Women’s paraspinal muscles were significantly smaller. The erector spinae muscle and multifidus muscle in older aged patients were described as having more fat in them. (4) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center realizes that aging contributes to back pain’s development, path, and treatment.
LESS IS MORE: Treating Aged Back Pain
Since researchers documented that with age comes fatty infiltration of paraspinal muscles and inflammatory responses in the disc, it makes sense that doing less if back surgery is performed would be sensible. A recent study wrote that the addition of fusion to a decompression back surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis heightened the risk of new stenosis on an MRI two years later at the operated level or at an adjacent spinal level even when spondylolisthesis (a condition that one vertebra slipped on another one) was seen at surgery. (5) Less is more oftentimes when treating back pain. Gentler treatment can go far in decreasing pain. That is the motto of the CTFDD treatment plan at Manahawkin Chiropractic Center: gentle spinal manipulation, gentle exercise, etc.
CONTACT Manahawkin Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Joseph Beissel on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes the relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for a patient with chronic low back pain.
Make your Manahawkin chiropractic appointment today. There’s no avoiding age or its accompanying pal, degeneration. If disc degeneration and spinal muscle degeneration are now your pals, trust Manahawkin Chiropractic Center to get you all on a path of healing.
